Page 90 - Free Practice News Today

Having ended Free Practice 2 over a second off the pace in P11, Lewis Hamilton couldn’t hide his shock at taking P2 on the grid for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. And according to Hamilton, Mercedes’ astounding turnaround was brought about by a key change they made in the dying moments of Free Practice 3…

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly came from nowhere to comfortably head Free Practice 3 from the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, as Lewis Hamilton brought some hope to Mercedes, going third after their tough Friday. But the big story of the session was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen slewing painfully into the wall at Turn 15 midway through the session, bringing out a red flag.

AlphaTauri Team Principal Franz Tost has explained why his rookie driver Yuki Tsunoda has been moved to the team’s Faenza headquarters, and said that young Japanese wheelman is destined for far better performances this season.

Monaco winner Max Verstappen picked up where he left off two weeks ago as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend got under way, a late effort on softs seeing him head Free Practice 1 from the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz – as Lewis Hamilton posted Mercedes’ fastest time in P7.

Charles Leclerc got it all wrong in Free Practice 2 for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, sliding his Ferrari SF21 straight into the barriers and ripping off the front wing of the car.

Carlos Sainz said after Monaco that he expected his former McLaren team to fly in Baku with their “rocket” of a car. But after Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo ended up P8 and P13 in Free Practice 3, it looked on Friday’s evidence that Sainz’s prediction might have been slightly wide of the mark...

Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen topped the timesheets in the second Free Practice at Baku ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

1.041s – that was the gap between Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in Free Practice 2 for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, as Hamilton finished the session 11th, and outpaced by cars from Alfa Romeo, AlphaTauri and Alpine – while Valtteri Bottas finished even lower in P16, with both drivers at a loss to explain their pace deficit.

Sergio Perez set the fastest overall time during an incident-packed opening day of Azerbaijan Grand Prix practice in Baku for Red Bull on Friday, the sixth round of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship season.

Ferrari had downplayed their chances of carrying their impressive Monaco pace through to Baku, but after Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc ended Free Practice 2 for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in P3 and P4, that looked to be exactly what they had done – with both drivers admitting their performance had been “better than expected”.